Tag Archives: USC

Here is a guest column from my friend and co-blogger for Kicks Soccer blog, Alex Haueter. He’s quite knowledgable, and he approached me about a post National Championship Game post/column. So here are his words.

When Sam Bradford’s pass fell incomplete on fourth-and-four with about two-and-a-half minutes remaining in Thursday’s BCS National Championship Game, pens hit paper and fingers struck keyboards throughout the country as sports writers began an annual ritual.

The summary of a title game between two good teams?

Don’t be so naive.

Instead, American sportswriters have come to prefer bashing the BCS instead of writing about it. Even in the Associated Press’ summary of the game, the writer includes an obligatory reference to a college playoff system. Florida’s win got it the silverware, but fans of Texas, USC and Utah are hardly willing to acknowledge the Gators as national champions.

Do these other teams have an argument? Of course, they do. Utah did all that was asked of it, winning its games by an average of almost 20 points with an early season win at Michigan and victories over (at the time) 12th-ranked Texas Christian, 14th-ranked Brigham Young and fourth-ranked Alabama, a team that spent much of the season atop the polls. Texas was a missed tackle away from a perfect season, and beat Oklahoma on a neutral field by the same spread as Florida. USC’s stifling defense held its opposition to barely more than a touchdown per game, and probably would have done so against Penn State in the Rose Bowl had the game not been out of hand by halftime.

At the end of the season, the BCS is not the right way to find a national champion. Anything involving computers and algorithms that the average fan can’t understand isn’t. The system it replaced wasn’t perfect, either, but there was room for compromise through split national titles. Those, of course, caused plenty of debate, too. Remember the 1997 season? At the end of the year, Nebraska and Michigan shared the honor, despite the feeling of most pundits that the Cornhuskers would have easily handled the Wolverines had they played at year’s end. Continue reading →

Well this night seems to be both good and bad for the Big XII conference, with two games featuring Big XII teams being played. Obviously the marquee game was (13) Kansas at (19) South Florida but although less publicized another “measuring stick” game was Big XII cellar dweller Baylor hosting their Pac-10 counterpart in Washington State.

First the good … With Baylor dominating Washington State 45-17 in Waco, Texas – the Big XII has proven that they are a better conference top to bottom than the Pac-10. I don’t really think this was ever in doubt, but it’s just nice to have some sort of proof. If anyone wants to argue that the Pac-10 is a better conference, they are more than free to – however, they are wrong in every way.

If you look at the Big XII, yes they don’t have USC but they do have Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and Texas Tech. You see, those four are all Top-10 caliber teams, where as the Pac-10 doesn’t Continue reading →

Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel just announced that star running back Chris “Beanie” Wells will sit tomorrow’s game against USC.

This announcement comes as somewhat of a surprise after Wells sat out last week and practiced most of this week. In reports, it sounds as though Wells is surprised about this announcement – especially after stating he was ready to carry the ball “40 times” if needed.

I hate to say I’d written off OSU because they are an amazingly talented team, but without their No. 1 running back and a great USC defense, I just can’t see how they are able to go into the Coliseum and come out with a win. Maybe I’m wrong, heck I hope I’m wrong – but I just don’t see it.

Well bad news for Buckeye fans, as Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel said to day that it is doubtful that star running back Chris “Beanie” Wells will play Saturday against USC. Tressel said that Wells has lingering pain in his injured right foot after a work out last night. Wells didn’t practice with the Buckeyes today.

This is a huge blow for the Buckeyes heading into the weekend, and it places a lot more pressure on back up RBs and the passing game. In all reality it makes me think that this is the perfect opportunity for Tressel to use a running quarterback – insert Terrelle Pryor – and use the dual-threat aspect of his game to keep USC off-balance. However, even with that in mind, this just makes me think that my prediction of USC winning no matter what is an even better pick … unfortunately.

Alright, yet against I got behind on writing the weekend’s recap … so without further ado here we go.

*All rankings reflect the team’s position prior to the game*

Big XII

Eastern Washington 24-31 Colorado

Colorado needed 17 points in the fourth quarter to get by this underwhelming Eastern Washington team at Boulder. Yes, Eastern Washington put up some yards and points against Texas Tech the week before, but there is no reason that Colorado should be pushed that hard at home. The Buffalo’s won with a Cha’Pelle Brown 27 Yd Interception Return for a TD with 1:44 left in the game, talk about clutch.

Cincinnati 26-52 (4) Oklahoma

The Sooners struggled at the beginning of the game, yet came out in the second half and completely dominated the Bearcats. The offense was lead by another efficient day Continue reading →

Polls were released for College football from the AP and Coach’s today and surprise surprise, the USC Trojans top the list of teams yet again. However, the real story from this week’s polls is the addition of Eastern Carolina in the polls.

The Pirates of Eastern Carolina entered into the 14th spot in the AP and 20th in the Coach’s polls Continue reading →